Arkantos
Arkantos is a figure in Greek mythology who was said to have been the lead admiral of Atlantis, the realm of Poseidon. Arkantos was the son of Athena, and was a general during the Trojan War, among many others. Arkantos was a veteran of several conflicts against the enemies of Atlantis, and he fought for the city until it eventually collapsed into the ocean with Arkantos in it. Athena revived him and made him a god, giving him immortal powers. Biography Arkantos of Atlantis was born during a time of great turmoil. His homeland was under constant siege by enemy armies and often seemed on the verge of losing not only the colonies it had fought hard to establish, but also the very home island of Atlantis. Arkanos took up spear and shield at an early age, and quickly earned a reputation as a great leader and one favored by Poseidon, the Father of Atlantis. in a dream]]By the twilight of these great wars, Arkantos had become so indisputably skilled in waging war that the Council of Atlantis named him admiral and placed him in charge of their entire military. With the homeland again safe, Arkantos embarked upon a campaign to search out and eliminate any enemies who still remained. Finally, there was no enemy capable of challenging Atlantis. In a time of peace, maintaining a large army no longer seemed necessary and Arkantos himself seemed a relic of a bygone age. Kept around largely for gratitude for years of service, Arkantos then commanded only a token force to fight off the rare bandit or pirate, including those that killed his wife and left his son, Kastor, as his only heir. When Arkantos was 44 years old, Kamos' Egyptian pirates attacked Atlantis twice, and on one occasion they were able to steal the trident of Poseidon. Poseidon's anger became apparent, and Arkantos fought the pirates until he defeated Kamos, who rode off on a leviathan. In the meantime, Arkantos was sent by a theocrat to go to Troy to help break the siege. It would not be customary to send one of his junior officers, so Arkantos was sent on an errand to help King Agamemnon and his forces in recapturing Helen of Troy and defeating the Trojans. Arkantos was one of the commanders at the siege, and along with Odysseus and Ajax, he fought under Agamemnon's command and helped to conquer Troy after a long siege. He was one of the men behind the Trojan Horse strategy, and Troy was captured, allowing for Arkantos to return home. However, Ajax warned him that his ships needed repair, and that he should stop off at the port of Ioklos before returning home. Arkantos said that his ships were fine, but one of his three ships tilted over and sunk, and Arkantos agreed to go to Ioklos with Ajax. ]]However, they found Ioklos in flames when they headed there for the repairs. An old man told them that bandits sacked Ioklos while the army was at Troy, and that the bandits were holding the soldiers and a man named Chiron hostage. Arkantos and Ajax helped to rescue the soldiers from the Egyptian pirates of Kemsyt and Gargarensis, and they freed Chiron after destroying the Egyptian acropolis. Along with Chiron, they attempted to rescue the other prisoners taken up north fo Kauadarci to work on a mine, and they split up into two groups, both reaching the mine after fighting Gargarensis' forces. They found the mine, and Gargarensis encountered Arkantos at a cliffside. He warned Arkantos not to pursue him, and he called in a firestorm that killed several of Arkantos' men. However, the heroes pursued Gargarensis into the underworld passage that he had mined. ]]The heroes found Gargarensis trying to break open an entrance to Tartarus with a large battering ram, and they destroyed the ram, preventing him from opening the gates. Arkantos navigated his way out of the underworld with the help of the shades and Charon's ferry across the Styx River. Arkantos tried to worship at the temple of Poseidon so that Poseidon could grant him a way out of the underworld, but there was no reply. He worshipped at the temple of Zeus, who gave him a staircase out of Tartarus that let him leave the underworld. The heroes exited in Egypt, a strange land, and they were greeted by Amanra, who needed their help with excavating the Sword of the Guardian at Fuka. They defended three valleys from the god Set's forces until the excavation was completed, and Amanra told them that they needed to find the pieces of the god Osiris to revive him so that he could stop Set, with whom Gargarensis and his servant Kemsyt were allied. Later, they took over an oasis village that was held by Set's men, freeing the enslaved villagers that were forced to mine gold. The swordbearers carried the Sword of the Guardian to the tomb of Osiris, where they found a piece of Osiris and put it in a carriage. Later, they moved to the city of Dalija with the cart, but they were ambushed by Egyptians and wounded. Kemsyt gained control of the carriage, but Pharaoh Thutmose sent troops to recover the carriage and aid them. They were cared for by Thutmose, and they retook the carriage. As the carriage slowly lumbered towards Dalija, they called on lighting storms, earthquakes, and tornadoes to destroy Kemsyt's base and kill his soldiers as they attempted to recapture the carriage; one such lightning strike killed the enemy pharaoh, also named Thutmose. and Arkantos in the prison of Abydos]]Afterwards, Amanra left the city to deliver the piece of Osiris to the priest Setna, the son of Pharaoh Ramesses II. However, the forces of Set captured the other heroes, telling them that Setna was already a "guest of theirs". Amanra prayed to the goddess Isis to give he assistance in fighting Set, and she was blessed with an army of scarabs, sphinxes, scorpion men, and petsuchoses, and she killed the pharaohs Ramses and Ramses II in battle as she attempted to rescue the others. However, she was also captured, and they were all held in a prison on an island. However, Arkantos led the others in escaping Gargarensis, and they headed to the island of Petftjauabstet, a friendly pharaoh, and they destroyed the lighthouse to prevent Kamos' fleet from pursuing them. Next, they landed on an island to the south and recovered the carriage, and they took it out of the city of Abydos, escaping again. Arkantos and Ajax moved out on their own to take the Osiris piece from Kamos' stronghold as Amanra and her band and Chiron and Niordsir's group headed to the Red Sea coast to seize the other two pieces. Near present-day Nuseirat in the Gaza Strip of Palestine, Arkantos and Ajax assaulted Kamos' fortress, slipping past his navy on captured pirate ships and using god powers to wreck his base. Arkantos encountered Kamos on a cliff again, and he taunted Kamos, who warned him that someone else would mount his head on his mast. Kamos was impaled by Arkantos' spear as he charged towards him, and he fell to his death onto sharp rocks. The heroes reunited in Abydos with the carts and revived Osiris, who killed all of Gargarensis' army, forcing him to flee to the Norselands. Arkantos and Ajax decided to give chase, but they had to land on the island of Rhodes first when they heard that Odysseus was falling on some hard times. They saw several pigs and assumed that Odysseus and his men were eating well, but they found out that the goddess Circe had transformed his men into pigs. They themselves were also made into boars, so they headed around the island, avoiding or killing villagers that tried to kill them. The heroes broke down several pens and freed pigs, and they made it past several villages before reaching the temple to Zeus, who transformed them back into humans. They built a small base and assaulted the citadel of Circe, destroying her fortress and freeing Odysseus. Arkantos lent Odysseus one of his ships for him and his men to return home, and Odysseus bade him farewell once more, with Arkantos insisting that he owed him nothing. Category:Greek gods Category:Deities Category:Greek mythology Category:Atlanteans